237-NASA – Messier 65 is a Spiral Galaxy Containing Billions Upon Billions of Stars M65

Messier 65 (M65) is an intermediate spiral galaxy. Messier 65 contains little dust and gas and, even though its spiral arms show some evidence of recent star forming activity, there is overall little star formation occurring in it and the ratio of old, evolved stars to young ones is quite high.

The recent star formation and the galaxy’s disk, which appears slightly warped, both indicate that M65 is interacting with its large neighbors. The galaxy may also have a central bar, which may indicate tidal disruption, but it is difficult to confirm the existence of the bar because M65 is positioned at an oblique angle when seen from Earth.